Bay City officials touting energy efficiency

Bay City officials are touting energy efficiency as a new report for the month of January shows high energy consumption by city electric customers.

Bay City Electric Light & Power reports that monthly power sales totaled $2.7 million, about $150,000 greater than budgeted.

Year-to-date total sales are $18.4 million, which is $400,000 above the budgeted amount.

Kilowatt-hour sales for the year are 195 million, which is still 1.8 percent less than budgeted. However, the January volumes were significantly higher than budgeted at 30.2 million kWh versus 27.6 million kWh budgeted.

Colder than normal weather is the likely cause of the increase.

City officials plan to hold a town hall meeting at 6:30 p.m. March 9 at Electric Light & Power, 900 S. Water St. As part of the meeting, the electric utility will be holding an Energy Efficiency Expo where local vendors will showcase energy-saving products from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Beside energy-efficient products, the utility expects to be presenting details of its proposed Energy Optimization Plan.